[Discussion] New Coronavirus rule

[Nobel Hobos 2]

I wonder whether these new rules(?) will affect some who have.....you know, done that in NSG in the past.

Probably no bans, but deleted or edited posts since it's unfair to retroactively punish people. That's how I'd do it, were I halfway responsible enough to be a mod, anyway.

Might want to stick the post about the new rules in a big shiny, sticky thread on this forum too.

This is a good idea from my fellow poster. Posting here as a suggestion

Could I further suggest that "PG-13 people" sticky might be sacrificed to make room for the new rule.

[Heloin]

I don’t think there’s a limit on the number of sticky’s they can have on a board.

[The New California Republic]

They'll prob leave it for a week or so before smacking, so that the new rule has time to work its way into all the nooks and crannies both gameside and forumside, so that folk have had ample warning about it. The posts/dispatches etc that fall foul of the rule will likely still be removed in the meantime though.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

I'm not even sure if it is a rule that they will smack for, but if it is then they'll prob leave it for a week or so before smacking, so that the new rule has time to work its way into all the nooks and crannies both gameside and forumside, so that folk have had ample warning about it. The posts/dispatches etc that fall foul of the rule will likely still be removed in the meantime though.

Sure it's a new rule and hopefully a temporary one. The suggestion I make though is that it be posted as a sticky to hasten the process.

[The New California Republic]

I'm not even sure if it is a rule that they will smack for, but if it is then they'll prob leave it for a week or so before smacking, so that the new rule has time to work its way into all the nooks and crannies both gameside and forumside, so that folk have had ample warning about it. The posts/dispatches etc that fall foul of the rule will likely still be removed in the meantime though.

Sure it's a new rule and hopefully a temporary one. The suggestion I make though is that it be posted as a sticky to hasten the process.

It will be no doubt.

[Agarntrop]

Someone violated it already

[The New California Republic]

Someone violated it already

In the absence of being told otherwise, I imagine you report this in the Remove Posts Megathread.

[Nakena]

I would interpret the announcement that deliberate and systematic spreading of Covid-19 related falsehoods, conspiracy theories and calls for ignoring medical advice are the sort of content that is to fall under the new rule.

Also, theres a lot of RMB's where this might be an bigger issues than on NSG.

[Agarntrop]

I would interpret the announcement that deliberate and systematic spreading of Covid-19 related falsehoods, conspiracy theories and calls for ignoring medical advice are the sort of content that is to fall under the new rule.

Also, theres a lot of RMB's where this might be an bigger issues than on NSG.

"The CCP intentionally became incompetent in how it's supposed to handle a virus so that they can let the Wuhan Virus run its course and ravage the world."

I would class that as a conspiracy theory.

[Nakena]

I would interpret the announcement that deliberate and systematic spreading of Covid-19 related falsehoods, conspiracy theories and calls for ignoring medical advice are the sort of content that is to fall under the new rule.

Also, theres a lot of RMB's where this might be an bigger issues than on NSG.

"The CCP intentionally became incompetent in how it's supposed to handle a virus so that they can let the Wuhan Virus run its course and ravage the world."

I would class that as a conspiracy theory.

It's more like stuff such as "Covid-19 has been created by the jewish reptiloid overlords and the idea behind it is to lock us all down and control us via vaccines with nanomachines inside" type of conspiracy BS.

(and yes theres people out there who do believe that)

As for the medical advice stuff... well... thats obvious.

[LiberNovusAmericae]

I think the CCP dropped the ball when dealing with the virus. Hopefully saying that doesn't become ban worthy under this rule, as it can be misconstrued as a "falsehood."

[Minoa]

I would interpret the announcement that deliberate and systematic spreading of Covid-19 related falsehoods, conspiracy theories and calls for ignoring medical advice are the sort of content that is to fall under the new rule.

Also, theres a lot of RMB's where this might be an bigger issues than on NSG.

"The CCP intentionally became incompetent in how it's supposed to handle a virus so that they can let the Wuhan Virus run its course and ravage the world."

I would class that as a conspiracy theory.

Without a reliable source like the BBC or Reuters, the claim can be questioned.

COVID-19 has become a wake-up call about the problem of bias, lies, and misinformation in the age of the internet, especially since COVID-19 has basically brought the world to a halt, and smashed my mental health to dangerous levels not seen since the Brexit. It is bad enough that our government is defying the hard-working folks at the WHO who have said time and time again that we can bring it under control.

In short, if NationStates allowed COVID-19 conspiracy theories and fake "cures" to run wild, and then mainstream media sources later implicate us for a spreading conspiracy theory that made the COVID-19 crisis worse than it should have been, our credibility is in danger.

[Zurkerx]

I will be composing a fact sheet and posting it in the COVID-19 Thread (and here and in my signature) later today. It's going to be important to have said information on hand.

[The New California Republic]

I will be composing a fact sheet and posting it in the COVID-19 Thread (and here and in my signature) later today. It's going to be important to have said information on hand.

The fact it is an actionable offence and not just a "removable post" offence needs to be spelled out posthaste, as there was almost a ruling regarding it, even though I doubt it is widespread knowledge that it is actionable:

I am going to further suggest that you both put each other on your respective foe lists. Since your sources (the Washington Post article, and the USA Today article respectively) are both factual, I will not be hammering either of you for misinformation as regards COVID-19. But I will say that you both need to put each other on your respective foe lists, and calm down.

[Nakena]

I will be composing a fact sheet and posting it in the COVID-19 Thread (and here and in my signature) later today. It's going to be important to have said information on hand.

Feel free to use elements from my unpublished Corona 2020 draft:

Continuation thread from viewtopic.php?f=20&t=480001

Q: What is the coronavirus?

Coronaviruses are a family of hundreds of viruses that can cause fever, respiratory problems, and sometimes gastrointestinal symptoms too. The 2019 novel coronavirus is one of seven members of this family known to infect humans, and the third in the past three decades to jump from animals to humans. Since emerging in China in December, this new coronavirus has caused a global health emergency.
How does it spread?

It’s likely to be transmitted in droplets from coughing or sneezes, and the virus has a two- to 14-day incubation period. That means people could be infectious for quite a while before symptoms like fever, cough, or shortness of breath emerge.

What are the particular symptoms of Covid-19?

In the confirmed cases so far, most people get a fever with a dry cough; smaller numbers of folks might experience shortness of breath, a sore throat, or a headache.
How can I avoid catching the coronavirus?

Wash your hands wash your hands wash your hands wash your hands wash your hands wash your hands wash your hands wash your hands wash your hands wash your hands wash your hands wash your hands wash your hands. You get the point.

Clean all of your tech equipment. Just like your hands, your smartphone and keyboard and headphones and anything else gets germs on it.

Are you a health care worker? If not, don't buy a face mask—that depletes supplies for the health professionals who need them. Same goes for gloves (see: "wash your hands," above).

If you're in a high-risk group (over 60, have preexisting lung disease, heart disease, diabetes, or a weakened immune system) you should seek treatment if you get sick, since it can quickly go from cough to full-blown pneumonia. Call your doctor or clinic first with your suspicions so they can direct you appropriately. If you're not in a high-risk group, better to self-isolate at home with plenty of fluids and anti-fever meds. Odds are you'll recover, and this way you won't expose anyone. Still call your doctor, so they know what's going on—they may be able to direct you to people at the health department who can conduct testing. Don't go to the ER unless you're really experiencing life-threatening symptoms.

Q: Is Covid-19 more deadly than the flu?

That remains to be seen. According to preliminary estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 2019–2020 flu caused 19 million to 25 million illnesses and up to 25,000 deaths. The Covid-19 numbers are harder to calculate because it’s not yet clear how many people are infected. The CDC calculates the death rate at about 2 percent, which is higher than the flu—but the real number might be a lot lower, because less-severe cases may not have been reported. People with more mild cases might not even go to the hospital, and health care workers might have mistaken cases for the flu or for pneumonia. If epidemiologists count only the most severe cases, the death rate will look higher because a higher proportion of those patients die—so that might not offer an accurate reflection of reality.

The biggest difference between the two types of infection is that the health system is better prepared to fight the flu. It comes every year and, while some strains are more severe than others, doctors know how to treat and prevent it. Covid-19 is uncharted territory, because scientists have so many questions about how it spreads, and there isn’t a vaccine for it.

Q: How did it get its official name?

The international committee tasked with classifying viruses has named the new one SARS-CoV-2, because of its close genetic ties to another coronavirus, the one that causes SARS. However, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2—remember, that's the disease characterized by coughing, fever, and respiratory distress—is called Covid-19. It's the name officially bestowed upon the ailment by the World Health Organization. WHO's task was to find a name that didn't demonize a particular place, animal, individual, or group of people and which was also pronounceable. It's pronounced just like it sounds: Co-Vid-Nine-teen.

If you're confused, think about HIV/AIDS. Human-immunodeficiency virus infects people. If left untreated, HIV can lead to autoimmune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Some people might get infected with SARS-CoV-2 and not get sick at all. Others will come down with symptoms of the disease Covid-19. (Yeah, it sounds like the name of a robot raven to us, too.)

Q: Where did SARS-CoV-2 come from, anyway?

The first cases were identified at the tail end of 2019 in Wuhan, the capital city of China’s Hubei province, when hospitals started seeing patients with severe pneumonia. Like the viruses that cause MERS and SARS, the new coronavirus appears to have originated in bats, but it’s not clear how the virus jumped from bats to humans or where the first infections occurred. Often, pathogens journey through an intermediary “animal reservoir”—bats infect the animals, and humans come into contact with some product from that animal. That could be milk or undercooked meat, or even mucus, urine, or feces. For example, MERS moved to humans through camels, and SARS came through civet cats sold at a live animal market in Guangzhou, China.

Scientists don’t know why some coronaviruses have made that jump while others haven’t. It may be that the viruses haven’t made it to animals that humans interact with, or that the viruses don’t have the right spike proteins, so they can’t attach to our cells. It’s also possible that these jumps happen more often than anyone realizes, but they go unnoticed because they don’t cause serious reactions.

Q: How do coronaviruses even work?

Coronaviruses are divided into four groups called genera: alpha, beta, gamma, and delta. These little invaders are zoonotic, meaning they can spread between animals and humans; gamma and delta coronaviruses mostly infect birds, while alpha and beta mostly reside in mammals.

Researchers first isolated human coronaviruses in the 1960s, and for a long time they were considered pretty mild. Mostly, if you got a coronavirus, you’d end up with a cold. But the most famous coronaviruses are the ones that jumped from animals to humans.

Coronaviruses are made up of one strip of RNA, and that genetic material is surrounded by a membrane studded with little spike proteins. (Under a microscope, those proteins stick up in a ring around the top of the virus, giving it its name—“corona” is Latin for “crown.”) When the virus gets into the body, those spike proteins attach to host cells, and the virus injects that RNA into the cell’s nucleus, hijacking the replication machinery there to make more virus. Infection ensues.

The severity of that infection depends on a couple of factors. One is what part of the body the virus tends to latch onto. Less serious types of coronavirus, like the ones that cause the common cold, tend to attach to cells higher up in the respiratory tract—places like your nose or throat. But their more gnarly relatives attach in the lungs and bronchial tubes, causing more serious infections. The MERS virus, for example, binds to a protein found in the lower respiratory tract and the gastrointestinal tract, so that, in addition to causing respiratory problems, the virus often causes kidney failure.

The other thing that contributes to the severity of the infection is the proteins the virus produces. Different genes mean different proteins; more virulent coronaviruses may have spike proteins that are better at latching onto human cells. Some coronaviruses produce proteins that can fend off the immune system, and when patients have to mount even larger immune responses, they get sicker.

Sauce: https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-a-coronavirus/

---

Map: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps ... 7b48e9ecf6

Explainatory Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtN-goy9VOY

WHO Q&A: https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detai ... onaviruses

More info and op will follow.

@Mods: Feel free to update/amendment this as required.

[LiberNovusAmericae]

I will be composing a fact sheet and posting it in the COVID-19 Thread (and here and in my signature) later today. It's going to be important to have said information on hand.

The fact it is an actionable offence and not just a "removable post" offence needs to be spelled out posthaste, as there was almost a ruling regarding it, even though I doubt it is widespread knowledge that it is actionable:

I am going to further suggest that you both put each other on your respective foe lists. Since your sources (the Washington Post article, and the USA Today article respectively) are both factual, I will not be hammering either of you for misinformation as regards COVID-19. But I will say that you both need to put each other on your respective foe lists, and calm down.

The announcement from Max states that posting misinformation can result in bans.

But today, misinformation about COVID-19 is dangerous, so moderators will be taking action to remove it, including issuing bans against people who post it.

[The New California Republic]

The fact it is an actionable offence and not just a "removable post" offence needs to be spelled out posthaste, as there was almost a ruling regarding it, even though I doubt it is widespread knowledge that it is actionable:

The announcement from Max states that posting misinformation can result in bans.

But today, misinformation about COVID-19 is dangerous, so moderators will be taking action to remove it, including issuing bans against people who post it.

Yes I know it is, but there needs to be an announcement forumside, as many folk go straight to the forums and don't bother looking at the news. Having an announcement gameside without one forumside means that the news of the rule change is not getting spread adequately.

[Minoa]

I think the forum announcement should be a global announcement sticky: the first post being straight to the point about Max's special measures to combat COVID misinformation, and then the second post being about COVID in detail and links to official information by the WHO.

[Aclion]

The announcement from Max states that posting misinformation can result in bans.

Yes I know it is, but there needs to be an announcement forumside, as many folk go straight to the forums and don't bother looking at the news. Having an announcement gameside without one forumside means that the news of the rule change is not getting spread adequately.

If they don't read a news post they wont read a sticky.

[Minoa]

Yes I know it is, but there needs to be an announcement forumside, as many folk go straight to the forums and don't bother looking at the news. Having an announcement gameside without one forumside means that the news of the rule change is not getting spread adequately.

If they don't read a news post they wont read a sticky.

If I recall correctly, the notification icon for new News posts only appear for nations that existed at the time when Max posted the announcement. New nations also have to be aware of the special measures against COVID misinformation.

[Reploid Productions]

We're working on a global announcement sticky right now, actually; hopefully should have that posted later today.

[The New California Republic]

Yes I know it is, but there needs to be an announcement forumside, as many folk go straight to the forums and don't bother looking at the news. Having an announcement gameside without one forumside means that the news of the rule change is not getting spread adequately.

If they don't read a news post they wont read a sticky.

The problem though is that it could be seen as rather scumbag-ish if a rule is suddenly enforced with very little notice and very little in the way of publicity. "Ignorance of the law is no excuse" etc doesn't apply if there has been very little notice and publicity indicating the change.

[The New California Republic]

We're working on a global announcement sticky right now, actually; hopefully should have that posted later today.

Oh cheers Reppy.

[Lockdownn]

I will be composing a fact sheet and posting it in the COVID-19 Thread (and here and in my signature) later today. It's going to be important to have said information on hand.

Seeing as the details surrounding many aspects of this virus are ever changing, how strongly will people be punished (if at all) should they state something that was true maybe a day ago but was updated today to reflect new (corrected) findings. This is, of course, based on the assumption that the user in question has not been entirely up-to-date (which is reasonable given how fast this situation is developing).

[Reploid Productions]

The tricky part is we want to have at least some guidelines hammered out backstage; we're all kinda flying by the seat of our pants here. Obviously we want to avoid overreach given this unconventional temporary expansion of "what we can smack people for." For example, the mortality rate: that's something that you could easily have a very valid discussion and debate about (risk for different age groups, mortality rate variance given access to medical care, etc), OR could troll with dangerous misinformation about ("Young people don't have to worry it's only 0.02% mortality rate for them!")

Given how rapidly the situation is developing, there should definitely be leeway built in for "posting outdated information" versus "posting blatant misinformation." Likewise, there should be some leeway as this is a radical departure from our usual enforcement guidelines and it will take some time to circulate through the NS general public.

Again, we're still thrashing out "How the hell do we go about enforcing this from Max's edict?!" backstage. Kinda reminds me of the bad old days in 2003 when me and the other original mods were trying to thrash out how to enforce everything from Max's very broad list of things in the FAQ. ^^;